No one appreciated the offensive linemen more than former Raiders Hall of Fame coach John Madden, and no one recognizes more than Madden how the latest version of The Great Wall of Dallas has imposed its will on the NFL.

The 1990s Triplets of Jimmy Johnson’s Cowboys were Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin. The Triplets now are Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott and Dez Bryant. But Madden’s view of the football world celebrates the return of the Big Uglies as the Straws That Stir Jerry Jones’ Drink and threaten to clear a path to Houston and Super Bowl LI.

“They got the young quarterback now that can do the Troy Aikman stuff, and they got the young running back that can do the Emmitt Smith stuff, and they have some linemen that can do the line stuff,” Madden told The Post. “[Late Raiders owner] Al Davis and I used to have this argument all the time: How do you build a team? And Al always said you build a team through cornerbacks. And I said to build them through offensive line. And I think that’s what the Cowboys realized, and they went back and built this team through their offensive line.”

Johnson won Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII for Jones with an offensive line — and fullback Moose Johnston — that was as mouth-watering to Madden as Thanksgiving terducken.

“When you talk about that Jimmy Johnson offensive line, remember Erik Williams? He brought the nastiness to that group,” Madden said. “And Mark Tuinei to a certain extent. I’m not sure this group if they have that guy, but they will get him if they keep going the way they are. I don’t know that they don’t, but that old Cowboy offensive line had a couple of nasty guys in there. Our older Raider offensive line had some nasty guys in there, and I don’t know these guys well enough to know if they do or they don’t.”

Dallas coach Jason Garrett only can hope that one day, he can reminisce about Tyron Smith, Ronald Leary, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin and Doug Free the way Madden does his 1970s Raiders group.

“We could start a game by making you hang in there and stop the run,” Madden said. “And then when we got the lead, we’d run the ball to seal a victory. That’s what Bill Walsh did. I mean, Bill Walsh was the passing guru, and he had all those passes and little runs, but once he got the lead, he became a running team.”

From 1971-73, from left to right, the Raiders offensive line read: Art Shell, Gene Upshaw, Jim Otto, George Buehler and Bob Brown. All except Buehler are in the Hall of Fame.

“[Buehler] went to Stanford, and was never happy with himself for being a football player,” Madden said. “His dad was a doctor, his brother was a doctor. … All his people were doctors. And he felt like a failure.”

Davis, much to his young head coach’s delight, traded for the intimidating Brown in 1971. Brown would talk about bludgeoning an opponent with such bad intentions that he would be forced to the sideline for a while.

“He used to try and hit ’em, and in his words, ‘Take a quarter out of ’em,’ ” Madden said. “Then Art Shell became that same guy, and Jim Otto kind of always was. Bob Brown brought a nastiness.

“Shell was full of pride,” Madden said. “He did not want his guy to ever touch Ken Stabler. He didn’t ever want his guy to make a tackle on a running back. If his guy made a tackle or made a hit on the quarterback, he would go punish himself. And he would just go and practice and practice and practice. He used to practice against speed. The fastest guy on our team in those days was Cliff Branch. And he used to stay after practice and have Cliff Branch pass rush against him. He had great pride, and great pride in his weight. He never wanted to be weighed, so I had a rule with him — if I can see daylight between your legs, you’re OK.’ If I can’t see daylight, you have to lose weight.’ Because he wouldn’t get on a scale! What the hell are you gonna do, are you gonna bench him ’cause he won’t get on a scale, are you gonna fine him?”

On Upshaw: “We drafted him No. 1 out of Texas A&I to block [6-foot-7, 270-pound Chiefs defensive tackle] Buck Buchanan. Back in those days, all the defensive tackles were little guys, short guys, they were like 6-1, 6-2, short and stubby guys, so you could play with a shorter stubby guard. [Upshaw] was an automatic leader. I always thought he was gonna be the governor of California.”

On Otto: “He never wanted to come out of a game, he never wanted to come out of a practice. And the thing that I loved about Otto, and the rest of my team learned from this and I think the offensive line — he would sit right in the front row, and watch the film. And he would want you to run back the play where he missed a block. And he would say, “Run it back, run it back.” Most guys, if they had a bad play, they’d put their hands over their eyes to not see it. And they couldn’t wait for you to get through that play and get on to the next one. Jim Otto was just the opposite. He expected that every play that he did was gonna be perfect. And if it wasn’t perfect, he wanted to see it over and over and over again, so he knew why so it would never happen again. There’s not a lot of those guys.”

By 1976, the year Madden won Super Bowl XI over the Vikings, Dave Casper was the starting tight end.

“We used to run to the left all the time, and people said, ‘That Madden, you know what he’s doing, I can tell you what he’s gonna call,’ and they’d run to the left because Stabler’s left-handed and all that stuff,” Madden said. “But, on the left side, we had Otto, Gene Upshaw, we had Art Shell, and if we went strong left, we had Dave Casper.”

Dave Dalby eventually replaced Otto at center.

“Dave Dalby was the understudy to Jim Otto, so he learned everything from Otto, he was a lot like Otto,” Madden said. “When we got him, he was an undersized center at UCLA, and Jim Otto was getting pretty beat up and he was our snapper. But his shoulders were getting beat up, and the stingers and all that stuff, and I realized that we gotta get another snapper. And then he grew into a real center and became a great NFL center.”

Shell dominated Jim Marshall in Super Bowl XI.

“Marshall doesn’t make a tackle the whole game,” Madden said. “That was Art Shell’s goal every game, that his guy would never make a tackle.”

“If there’s any place that has struggled in development more than the quarterback, it’s the offensive line, because there’s not a lot that they can do with this new collective bargaining agreement to practice in the offseason to develop,” Madden said. “And so the line play, the last four, five years, has been as bad as it’s ever been.”

The Cowboys may be at the forefront of change in a quarterback-driven albeit copycat league, and no one seems more thrilled about the renewed impact of the offensive line than Madden.

“They were always my guys,” Madden said, “and they still are, to this day.”